Product details
- ISBN 9781841596402
- Weight: 528g
- Dimensions: 126 x 189mm
- Publication Date: 03 Sep 2026
- Publisher: Everyman
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Each story captures a slice of life, and together they create a picture of Indian reality in all its fascinating variety. A number of themes predominate: the poverty aggravated by the dominance of landlords and the caste system; the position of women within the family and their desire for shape their own destiny; the lure of the city in a country that was and remains predominantly rural and agricultural. The inspiration and subject matter are Indian, but in their artistry and humanity these powerful and poignant tales are truly universal.
India has a long history of storytelling. To use Salman Rushdie’s phrase, it is ‘an ocean of stories’. So, when British rule brought the Western forms of the novel and the short story to India, they were grafted onto more ancient and varied oral traditions to create something quite unique. Rabindranath Tagore’s short story collections of the 1890s paved the way, but the form swiftly captured the imagination of writers across the subcontinent.
RUDRANGSHU MUKHERJEE is Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University of which he was the founding Vice Chancellor. He holds a D. Phil. in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He taught at the University of Calcutta and has held visiting appointments at Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Cruz amongst others. He was the Editor, Editorial Pages, The Telegraph. He is internationally acclaimed as a historian of the revolt of 1857 in India, on which he has published six books. He has also written on other themes relating to the history of modern India. His most recent book is Tagore & Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together.
